After 24-hour shutdown due to taxi violence, operations resume at Somerset West taxi rank

CAPE TOWN - Operations have resumed at the Somerset West taxi rank, after a 24-hour shutdown by police due to recent taxi-related violence in Cape Town.

At least five fatalities and nine injuries were reported in two days in areas including Philippi East, Khayelitsha, Macassar, and Lwandle.

The motive for the shootings is linked to a feud between rival taxi associations CATA and CODETA over routes between Somerset West, Mfuleni and Khayelitsha.

The provincial government has also threatened to take tougher action against the feuding taxi organisations.

Fresh talks to end the violence between CATA and CODETA reached a stalemate on Wednesday after the two taxi associations couldn't find one another.

The two organisations are at odds about which one should be operating from Mfuleni and Khayelitsha to Somerset West and back.

CODETA spokesperson Makhosandile Tumana said his association was the one with a valid permit to carry commuters on these routes.

"By the time we agreed to work together, it was a compromise because every taxi association has a starting point. So, when we agreed on the gap system we were trying to accommodate them."

CATA and CODETA are expected to resume talks soon to end the bloodbath.